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Limits to Pain
01 Nov 1981-
About: The article was published on 1981-11-01 and is currently open access. It has received 228 citations till now.
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8 citations
01 Jan 1995
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss some of the problems of studying women's imprisonment separately from men's and suggest ways of both destroying the iconography of the prison and de-institutionalizing the prison research business.
Abstract: This was going to be the article on women's imprisonment. I did not want to write on women's imprisonment—for two main reasons. First, because I've been wondering with increasing frequency exactly why women's imprisonment should be studied separately from men's. Secondly, because nowadays there seems to be an urgent need to study prisons primarily as forms of punishment, rather than as instances or representations of just about every other aspect of society (e.g. gender, racism, class, human survival; teaching pottery, drama, or poetry, etc.). Why not just write on 'imprisonment', or, more fundamentally, why continue to study prisons—women's or anyone else's—at all? So I asked permission to transform the invitation to write a piece on women's imprisonment into an opportunity to try to unravel the questions about gender, punishment, abolitionism, and the iconography of'the Prison' which had been teasing me for several months. This indefinite article is the result. It is divided into four parts. The essay first discusses some of the problems of studying women's imprisonment separately from men's. The second bit of it analyses the circular and repetitive nature of prison studies in general. Part 3 suggests ways of both destroying the iconography of the prison and de-institutionalizing the prison research business. The final section calls into question the article's title and rationale, and implies that in a collection entitled Prisons in Context such interrogation might be a legitimate device for putting prison in its placeso long as such 'placing' is itself kept forever open to question. Why Study Women's Prisons? The most obvious reason for researching women's prisons separately from men's is that for most of this century women in penal confinement in Britain, North America, and Europe have been housed separately from their male counterparts. Prior to the 1970s, the composition of female prison populations, the disciplinary practices employed within the women's institutions, and the gender-specific needs of women prisoners were largely neglected by researchers. The situation was not remedied until women writing and campaigning in the last quarter of the century engaged in the unremitting research and investigative journalism which put issues of women's imprisonment on penal reform agendas. Yet the focus of the research gaze has always been extremely dispersed. The women's prisons have become sites for studying (variously) everything from differential bailing
8 citations
09 May 2018
TL;DR: The authors argue that it is only by recognising the nature of these debates and fostering dialogue between the perspectives that we can achieve our shared goals and effect meaningful change, rather than denying these debates through the collapsing of one perspective into the other, or by polarising them into hostile camps.
Abstract: Since its emergence at the start of the twenty-first century, zemiology and the field of harm studies more generally, has borne an ambiguous and, at times, seemingly antipathetic relationship with the better-established field of criminology Whilst the tension between the perspectives is, at times, overstated, attempts to reconcile the perspectives have also proved problematic, such that, at present, it appears that they risk either becoming polarised into mutually antagonistic projects, or harmonised to the point that zemiology is simply co-opted within criminology Rather than denying these debates through the collapsing of one perspective into the other, or by polarising them into hostile camps, this chapter argues for a reconciling approach: it is only by recognising the nature of these debates and fostering dialogue between the perspectives that we can achieve our shared goals and effect meaningful change
8 citations
Cites background from "Limits to Pain"
...…an abolition of crime nor of the criminal justice system (though it would entail its radical reform so as not to exist as a site of ‘pain delivery’ (Christie, 1981) and harm in and of itself), but rather its significant reduction to ensure that we only punish individuals for their culpable acts....
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Posted Content•
TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe their own experiences as a prison researcher and their position within the cultural web of the prison society and describe their responses to the performative expectations of masculinity that made me "legible" and to some extent "legitimate" in the eyes of prisoners and prison staff.
Abstract: This article reflects on my own experiences as a prison researcher and my position within the cultural web of the prison society. From the first minute of the first day of fieldwork, I entered into perpetual negotiations about my position in the prison and my proper place in the ever-present struggle between (various factions of) prisoners and officers. Entering a prison as a researcher is both scary and exciting. How would I be greeted? Would I be accepted? Where would I fit in? What is the correct degree of closeness and distance between a researcher and the researched in such an environment? How can one best relate to and balance the very different positions that are being ascribed to you, such as “suspicious stranger,” “responsible professional,” “unwanted intruder,” and “trusted confidant”? With excerpts from my fieldnotes, I reveal my own thoughts and feelings about entering the prison for the first time, struggling to fit in and, finally, settling in to the field while remaining alert to the potential minefields surrounding me. I also describe my responses to the performative expectations of masculinity that made me “legible” and to some extent “legitimate” in the eyes of prisoners and prison staff.
8 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focus on the affective dimensions of crime and victimisation and suggest that the subjective, embodied and experiential aspects of doing crime and surviving victimisation are crucial in the search for secure and compassionate communities.
Abstract: This article focuses on the affective dimensions of crime and victimisation. Presupposing that human emotion is important generally in understanding social relations, it operates at two levels. At one level it explores potentially complementary approaches to the study of human emotion in criminological, victimological and community safety research and theory. Flowing from these ideas, I suggest that the subjective, embodied and experiential aspects of doing crime and surviving victimisation are crucial in the search for secure and compassionate communities. Examples of emotions that have the potential to stimulate both negative and positive motivations and actions are considered. At this level the article considers human emotion and feeling as a prominent policy concern. While acknowledging the difficulties in the struggle to establish compassionate communities, the importance of cultivating emotions that are likely to enhance safety and promote security, emotions based on empathy and compassion for others are explored. Arguing that gender-sensitive emotions particularly matter to crime prevention and community safety endeavours, this article contributes to a more developed criminological sociology of emotions.
7 citations
References
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1,628 citations
1,057 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a court procedure that restores the participants' rights to their own conflicts is outlined, where the participants have lost their rights to participate in conflict resolution in the past.
Abstract: CONFLICTS are seen as important elements in society. Highly industrialised societies do not have too much internal conflict, they have too little. We have to organise social systems so that conflicts are both nurtured and made visible and also see to it that professionals do not monopolise the handling of them. Victims of crime have in particular lost their rights to participate. A court procedure that restores the participants' rights to their own conflicts is outlined.
1,046 citations
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TL;DR: The authors of as discussed by the authors suggest that a wide range of services which were once produced in the money economy are increasingly provided informally on a self-service basis. But they do not consider the role of the state in the provision of these services.
1,023 citations
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